If you ever go to Bangkok I recommend you take the “Golden Buddha Tour.”
The Temple of the Golden Buddha was discovered in 1957. It is a 10 1/2 feet tall, smiling Buddha made of clay, or so they thought. It was being moved to make way for a new highway. When they lifted it, much to the great consternation of the monks, it cracked. Upon closer investigation, one of the monks saw something glimmering down inside the crack in the clay. Taking a screwdriver the monk began chipping away at it. Soon he discover the real treasure beneath all the clay. To everyone’s surprise, the real buddha underneath was made of solid gold. No one knew about this.
200 years earlier the Burmese army invaded Thailand. In an effort to keep the Buddha from being stolen, they covered it with a thick layer of clay. The problem was, the Burmese army killed everyone, so no one knew the secret.
Here’s another secret that few people really know:
Underneath our clay bodies there is a SELF more precious than all the gold in the world. Many people do not know this secret.
Maybe this is the reason some people find it so hard to love. Jesus said “love your neighbor as your self.” When we think of our selves as only bodies made of clay, really, what is there to love, either in our own self, or in other selfs.
I love what M.C.D’Arcy wrote:
“The self, then, senses itself in two ways; it feels lovingly towards its own ego, and it feels its derivativeness, that it bears the name of Another imprinted on it. If a melody could be conscious of it own beauty we might suppose that it could both admire itself and think of itself as being nothing more the the expression of a master musician.”
A twelfth century monk by the name of Bernard of Clairvaux outlined a Christian approach to learning the secret of loving one’s self. It progresses like a ladder.
1. Love of self for self’s sake.
2. Love of God for self’s sake.
3. Love of God for God’s sake.
4. Love of self for God’s sake.
© [Terry A Bell] and [The Love Ethic], [2009]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Terry Bell and [The Love Ethic] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. “The Love Ethic: Rediscovering Our Moral Compass” may be purchased at many book stores and most internet book sites.
Terry Bell's Blog 
Leave a comment